A Heartwarming Story of Health and Heroes

This past Saturday, Stephen, the kids and I were lucky enough to attend a golf tournament for a little boy, Trevor, who has Hurler Syndrome, a disease in the MPS family.

Trevor needed a bone marrow transplant 10 years ago to stop both physical and mental deterioration that would - without treatment - eventually kill him. Since no one in his family was a match, he had to turn to the Canadian Blood Services Unrelated Bone Marrow Registry, and was lucky enough to find an exact match. Trevor is now 11 years old, and very healthy, 10 years post-transplant.
It's wonderful to see him at this age, seeing that MPS kids, untreated, are not expected to reach their 10th birthday.

The golf tournament celebrated Trevor's decade of good health, and also recognized his unrelated, then-anonymous bone marrow donor from 10 years ago.

That donor is my hero, my husband Stephen!

The photos above show Stephen with Trevor at the first tee, as well the two of them with Trevor's dad Kenny. Below is Stephen with Trevor's mom Maureen.

We have become close to the family after Trevor made it past the 2 year post-transplant wait that CBS enforces, before they allow unrelated donors and recipients to share personal information. It's nice that we live so close together (just over an hour apart), seeing as the registry is national, so a bone marrow recipient could live anywhere in Canada.



Like the rest of our family, I am so proud of both Stephen and Trevor. They truly are my heroes!

If you are interested in reading more about Hurler Syndrome and MPS, click here.

For information on Canada's Unrelated Bone Marrow Registry, see this page, or for other information about Canadian Blood Services, look here.